better rear brakes

[Brett Dikeman]

At 8:36 PM +0000 5/20/03, no1of consequence wrote:

>i never raced it [on a track =] but i drove it pretty hard on the street.

Track driving and "hard" street driving are not even close to
comparison.  How many times, in hard street driving, do you go from
100 to 50, in the space of a few of minutes?  In one weekend you can
easily go through half your pads at Watkins Glen, for example.  If
cars don't have at least half their pad material, they get a stern
warning to check them after every rungroup.


>living in sf you get plenty of opportunity to experience brake fade, and i
>found that i could brake harder longer and the car just had more 'grab' with
>the vented rears.

His problem isn't brake fade, at least not as he expressed it in his
original post...

>this is obviously very subjective, but to me the car felt 'light' in the
>back when i really hammered the brakes.

That's probably because your proportioning valve wasn't working(or
adjusted properly.)  They freeze up all the time.  Going to bigger
brakes in back will make the problem seem smaller, but you're fixing
a symptom, not the problem.

>i did have drilled rotors

Drilled rotors are mostly useless.  Even the Porsche ones(which, it
turns out, Porsche lied about- they are NOT cast, they really ARE
drilled).  Show me a drilled or slotted rotor, I'll show you an
overpriced, structurally weakened rotor with less thermal mass and
less contact area that is going to be full of brake pad material and
rust in a few weeks anyway.

I've seen the evidence first-hand; a qclub instructor tried all sorts
of things on his 90q20v, including slotted rotors and drilled rotors.
They came off the car looking like a disaster- stress cracks, slots
full of brake pad material+rust...you know what he did?  Did the G60
upgrade(I believe) and solid rotors.

>ss lines

Not only worthless, but dangerous.  Stainless Steel lines have
ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS on a street car unless you replace them EVERY
year and they have proper fittings on them.  Racers replace them
every year or two depending upon things like whether they went off
and did a little lawnmowing, how many events they did, etc.

Why do SS lines fail?  Because dirt gets between the SS braid and the
plastic teflon line, abrades the teflon tube.  Then the tube, thus
weakened, basically explodes under pressure.  It is impossible to
inspect for dirt or the condition of the teflon line, which makes
them even more dangerous- you have no idea what shape they are in.
You'll note that not a single "tuner" who sells SS lines will mention
this to you, despite the fact that SS lines on street cars fail far
more often than stock lines.  Note further that the market is
completely swamped in cheap SS lines with lousy termination, hose,
etc.  If they're particularly clueless or underhanded, they'll tell
you that SS lines last longer, or are safer.  They do NOT.  They have
a drastically higher failure rate, even if Teflon "doesn't age", and
they CANNOT be inspected to determine integrity.

They were originally intended for racers ONLY, on cars where
virtually everything gets overhauled on a strict maintenance schedule
and the track is clean.  Street vehicles are exposed to lots of sand,
dirt, and debris almost every minute they're driven.

Fact is, most people go from overaged stock lines to SS lines.  No
kidding the SS lines are going to "feel" better, if you had stock
lines that were basically ready to let go.  So will new stock lines.
There will be a slight difference, but certainly not one that has any
"advantage".  Light wallet syndrome.


>mintex pads

Can't comment on aftermarket pads, only to say I'm quite happy with
my stock(ATE?) pads on my UFO-equipped 200q20v.  I have heard the
mintex name frequently- I think someone on the 200q20v list runs them
on his G60-equipped 200q20v when he does track events.

Careful who you buy from- someone bought pads from APR for his
S4(they cost a FORTUNE, too), lasted ONE on-track session at Watkins
Glen before he was back in the garage pulling off the wheels and
cursing, because the pads completely glazed over the rotors.  Hate to
be the guy at APR who had to answer that phone call.


>  and good juice [before +
>after the rear conversion]. which also helped a LOT over the stock shi...
>brakes.

If you're exceeding the boiling point of almost any decent brake
fluid during street driving, something's not quite right.  You did
say San Fran, but I'm still surprised.  If you still insist on high
boiling point brake fluid, Ford's standard issue DOT4 fluid is
reportedly excellent, and quite inexpensive.  Not to mention, easy to
come by.

B
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"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
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